 If you've studied Bunch and Communication or really any academic field, you know that we love models, right? We love ways that conveniently explain how something works and even better if it has a fancy acronym to go along with it. Public relations is no different. There are lots of different models that explain how the public relations process works, race, and ropes. And those are all great. And the one, though, that I want to focus on as we try and discover how the communication process works through public relations and how the campaign process works is what's called RPIE. So I want to take a look at the RPIE model in public relations. And again, this is just a way that, you know, method of explaining what does that process look like? What does the full process of a public relations strategic communication campaign look like? So the RPIE model, just to give you an overview here, is very simple to research, planning, implementation, and evaluation. That's the RPIE research, planning, implementation, and evaluation. We're going to walk through each of these, although they all really are interconnected. They work together extensively. We're going to divide them out a little bit so that we can understand the different component parts of the RPIE model in public relations. Let me say, too, that this is not inherently superior, I don't think, to ropes or race or any of the other acronyms. It's just the one I choose to use in looking at the public relations process. So let's jump into the RPIE model of public relations. So we start with research, had a whole separate video and unit on research. So I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this. I'll just remind you that there are two basic forms of research. First, you have secondary research, which involves things like examining the organizational background of whatever group you're working with or individual you're working with. Second, you're doing a communication analysis, an issue analysis, identifying target publics and public opinion, and a SWAT analysis as well. And then there are also what we call primary research. So secondary research is research you're just gathering. Other people have already done that. Primary research is you're going out and you're gathering information on your own. So you have quantitative research that you can do through things like surveys and data analysis. And then qualitative research that you can do through examination and observation. So again, there's a whole separate thing on research that we did. I'll link those in the area below so that you can have access to those. But it is a crucial foundational element of any public relations effort. You've got to know all of this. You've got to have all the information you can before you wade into all this stuff. It's no good to jump in just straight into trial and error through the implementation. If you don't have any idea who you're working with or what their goals are or what the layout of the land is, what the environment is, you'll be working in. So research is a critical first step. So I don't want to just gloss over it and make it seem like it's not important. It is. That's why it has its own separate thing for us in research. So do go check that out if you're not familiar with the research aspect. This is a critical first step in any public relations effort. So once you got a handle on the research, you've done all this, you've done the work, you've got your background, you know everything you need to know. Then we can start thinking about, OK, let's do some planning. What are our goals in this particular situation? We need to identify just in general where we had it here. It doesn't do its excuse me, much good to have this whole effort planned out and laid out and work so hard at it if we don't know where we're going. So we break planning down into a couple of different steps and part of this process. We like processes, right? So first we look at what are our objectives here? We have our general goals, but then what are our objectives within that? What specifically are we moving toward and how we know when we get there? We need to lay out these smart goals with these objectives in very specific and very detailed ways, not only for our own sake and to know how to effectively plan and implement and evaluate this effort. But so that we have an understanding with the organization we're working with of what are we going to do and how can public relations be a part of that? So we lay out these objectives. Once we have our objectives, then we can start thinking about our strategies, okay? How are we going to accomplish these objectives? What, you know, in what respect are we going to move within public relations to accomplish these objectives? And we're going to talk a little more about what that means here in just a moment, but just know that, you know, from objectives we move into strategies. And then finally we start to think about tactics. These are the specific detail-oriented things. This is where we get into real detailed planning about what's our timeline, what's our budget, those types of things, and specifically what kind of events or what kind of efforts are we going to have. We're going to use that within the tactics. So again, all of these feed into one another and from one another. We need to know what our objectives are before we can identify strategies and tactics to go along with that. And then up through that, tactics and strategies should be connected to specific objectives and specific goals that we're trying to accomplish. So when we think about objectives, there are really kind of a couple of different classifications of objectives, categories of objectives. When we're thinking about this with clients, with organizations that we're working with or whatever party it is we're working with, we can think about objectives in a couple of different ways. First we have what we call informational objectives, right? Informational objectives are objectives that create awareness by sharing information and attributes. So they're just trying to get the message out there really. Just trying to share information with people, make people aware of a product or an effort or an idea or a stance that an organization is taking. We're just sharing information, really trying to get the message out. We can also look at motivational objectives. That's another classification that we can look at. We're working through public relations to change the attitudes and influencing behaviors of our target audience. We're trying to get them to do something in other words. We're trying to get them to take action. We're trying to get them to change something about themselves or to change a behavior that they're engaging in toward the way we would want them to do. So we can do that. So instead of just sharing information, now we're working in more persuasive territory, trying to get them to do something with that information, to take action on that information. And then finally, we have what we call reputational objectives. And here we're just rebuilding or enhancing trust and confidence around a corporate event or crisis or an organizational event or crisis. Think about the BP oil spill. They had to do some serious reputational public relations outreach in managing their reputation and in restoring their reputation as a good corporate citizen of the world. So things like that are important for organizations as well to consider. So we first need to identify what kind of objective do we have here? Is it informational? Is it motivational? Is it reputational? Within those goals, where does this fall? And we can then identify appropriate strategies and tactics from there. So speaking of which, as we continue on with the planning, we can look at some different programming aspects of planning and programming. It starts with coming back to our research, we have to identify a specific target audience. Not just what's the target audience of this organization, but what's the target audience for what we're trying to accomplish with this specific campaign or effort? What's our target audience for this specific outreach in this specific endeavor? So we have to identify as part of the planning stages before we ever start rolling out events and rolling out communication plans and things like that. We need to identify who we're trying to reach with this. And that's going to then obviously influence the way we go about things. So we've got to plan around who's our specific target audience. Then we start to strategize. We start to come up with specific ideas of what's the best way for us to meet these people? What's the best way for us to reach them? What's the best way for us to engage in this? Should it be an in-person event? Should it just be a media campaign? Should it be more emphasis on social media? Should it be getting out and pressing the flesh, meeting people, being in the community, volunteering, doing things? So I mean, there are all kinds of ways that we can do that. So we need to identify, OK, what are some of our strategies here? Thinking about, OK, is this informational? Is it motivational? Is it reputational? And then that will help inform how specifically are we going to do this? What are the X's and O's we're going to use as we strategize this? Then we need to think about what are our key messages. You know, the old saying in speaking and writing, things that if you speak to everyone, you speak to no one. So if we broaden our message too much and we're just trying to, you know, collect everybody and reach everybody in the world, then we're probably not going to reach anybody because it's going to be so broad that it's not going to connect with any particular audience. So again, once we identify our target audience, we've got to identify, OK, within that, what are our key messages here and can we stick to those? Politicians encounter this a lot. They want to speak on every topic or they want to reach every particular voting constituency. But really the best campaigns understand that they've got to pick a few areas where they can really stand out and hammer those messages home. You have to do that with public relations oftentimes, too. You can't reach everybody with every message. So you've got to identify who's your audience and what is it that you want them to know? Identify those key messages within that. Then we started thinking specific tactics. Now, here we're getting down into the nitty gritty, right? How do we enact all of these things? You know, what are the moves on the chess board that we need to have to reach these audiences and get into the details and the specific, again, the nitty gritty of this, the nuts and bolts of all this? So we started thinking about things as well, like the timetable. This is detailed information. What's our timetable? What's our ultimate goal for achieving this? And then within that, we work backwards or I tend to work backwards and say, OK, if this is my goal to be at this place by this time, then, you know, where do I need to go? What kind of sub-tactics or sub-objectives do I need to have in here that will lead to that, right? That will lead us to that and help us accomplish what we need to in that effort and that endeavor? So we started thinking about our timetable. We started thinking about things like, like, what's the budget for this if there is one? A lot of times in public relations, you get to find that they want you to do it for free. But so what if any budget do we have for this? And so how do we want to use that? What's the best way we can use that money in stewardship and serving this effort? So all kinds of things that happen in the planning stage, we need to start looking, you know, again, funneling things down, narrowing things down to what's going to be the best use of our resources here as we seek out that specific target audience with the specific key message. How can we best go about that? And you're going to find that the planning stage and the next stage of implementation are so critically interlinked. So everything that we just did in the planning stage, in the implementation stage, we start to look at those tactics that we just developed, right? What's our timetable? What's our budget? What's our strategy? What are our key messages? We take all those tactics from the planning stage and then we start to put them into action. That's what implementation is. Okay, we've got this plan. We know what we want to do with this and how we're going to try and accomplish this. Now we go out and put it into action. We follow that timetable. We follow that budget. We pursue those tactics and we start, you know, putting rubber to the road and meeting these goals and working toward that through the specific implementation of those things that we develop in the planning process. Okay, so we started with our research, having a full understanding of who that organization is, what the environment is you're working in, and all of those things identifying your key audiences. Then we're working in the planning stages to see how all that matches up with specifically what our objectives are and how we can then continue to pursue that through different strategies and tactics. Now it's time to put all of that to work, right? So put those tactics, bring them into action, bring them to life. Okay, so once we've done that then, you know, we sort of just see what happens. You do the best you can and you see what works and what doesn't and go from there. And that's really leads us into the final stage of RPIE, which is evaluation, right? Evaluation just says, okay, now it's time to look at this. How did it go? What went well? What worked? What didn't work? What didn't go well? You've got to be able to be honest with these things and have an honest evaluation. This will be made much easier if you've developed appropriate smart goals, meaning they're specific, they're measurable, there are things we can identify specifically, you know, have we, have we done this effectively? And remember that this is all part of a singular process as we look at RPIE. The research, planning, implementation, evaluation, this is going to then lead back into research, okay? Effective public relations is cyclical. It involves that evaluation leading back into these other stages. And then we go back into, okay, knowing what we know now. Let's take, let's step back to our research again and see what we know now that we didn't know before, then we can adjust. If necessary, our plan, we can look at implementation. So evaluation, you know, again, starts with those ideas, starts with that tactic, starts with implementing those things and putting them to work. And then basically asking, does it work? Did this go the way we thought it would? Did it go better? Did it go worse? Did some things work and some didn't? So we need to identify, does it work? And if so, what works? And so if it does, if the answer is yes, it's a very simple diagram, right, if the answer is yes, then we need to ask ourselves things like, what can we repeat here? Should we just keep it going? Should we roll it back? And should we, should we run it back? Should we just keep doing what we're doing? Is that the best strategy for taking advantage of this? We found something that works. Do we just keep doing that? Or do we use this as an opportunity to grow? We use this as, you know, we've got the seedling here. We've got an idea that we think works. There are things we can do better and improve upon that so we can help this effort grow and really expand from that. Use this as our foundation, as our, as our sort of a tilled soil. We can grow something even better out of that. And then, you know, just taking away, what are some ideas that we have? And what have we learned in essence from this? It worked great. Again, if we may keep repeating some stuff, we may use it to grow. Most importantly, though, what do we learn here? What can we identify as takeaways and significant lessons here? So if it worked, we want to go through that process. And then again, feedback into the research process and go from there. Or if we come out on the other end of that and did it work? No, it didn't work. We don't. Well, why not? So let's let's go back to the planning stages and let's go back to, you know, get back to research, back to planning and try it again. Let's try something different. If that didn't work, we can hold on to any pieces that did, but let's go back and and see what we can do better. So again, this is all very much cyclical, very much cyclical. It all feeds into one another as much as anything we need to remember that that there are steps to this. It's not. There's we've talked about before. There's no shortcuts, really. And as Beverly Sills said, there's no there are no shortcuts to any place worth going. If it's worth going there, you're going to have to put in the work and there's work here and it's continuous and it's cyclical and it's but it's exciting and it's fun. And and so be sure that you are giving proper focus and attention to all four of these stages, research, planning, implementation and evaluation, and then that they feed back in to one another. If you have questions about the RPIE model or anything related to public relations and the implementation of those things, please feel free to email me. Joy to hear enjoy hearing from you there. And I would love to communicate with you that way. So feel free to send me an email with anything related to this. In the meantime, I hope you do have a better understanding of the nature of the public relations process in the model. Some of the models that we can use specifically the RPIE model here in implementing and then, you know, going through that whole process. It's not just jump ahead to implementing research, planning, implementation, evaluation and then back around through that route again and again and again for effective public relations.